Indigo, Venstar and INSTEON

A collection of information about using a Venstar thermostat with INSTEON and Perceptive Automation's Indigo home automation software.

Links

• SmartHome Venstar WiKi
• Advanced Thermostat Script
• Usage Monitor
• MRTG with Venstar
• Battery Backup

Dictionary

You can tell the thermostat to run in programmed mode (the program set up in the T1900) by using the following applescript:

set hvac mode of device "YOUR THERMOSTAT" to runProgramAuto

Available words via the AppleScript dictionary are:

• fan mode: fanAlwaysOn or fanAutoOn
• hvac mode: offMode, heatOn, coolOn, heatCoolOn, runProgramHeat, runProgramCool, or runProgramAuto

INSTEON Commands

Relevant Features

When using the AC to dehumidify the "running" LED flashes every 8 seconds. Indigo also sees an INSTEON device "off (button 1)" and "on (button 1)" every 8 seconds.

It appears that a temperature set point change from Indigo or manually at the Venstar holds until the next scheduled program set point change or until midnight.

Circuit Board

Photo references capacitor C4. The battery backup project referenced above has not been tried by this author. It could destroy the thermostat.

Home Depot $19 LED Light Bulb

The Home Depot $19 LED Light Bulb works with INSTEON LampLinc Dimmer modules. The light consumes 8 Watts and produces 429 Lumens. Its called to be a 40 Watt incandescent equivalent. The light dims from very dark to full brightness very smoothly. It is much better than any CFL that's been tried.

Adding Text to iPhoto Images and Photos

Set Preview as the external editor in iPhoto and use the Annotate tool to add text and shapes to iPhoto jpeg files. Select Preview from the Edit photo: option in iPhoto General Preferences. This change will make Preview the primary editor for iPhoto. Change the setting back to In Main Window to leave Preview as the optional External Editor available by right clicking on a photo in iPhoto.

An excellent step by step procedure with screen shots is avaiable.

Viewing iPhoto IPTC metadata on Windows XP

Snow Leopard iPhoto puts image descriptions in two IPTC fields embedded in the jpeg files, the "title" field and the "caption/description" field. The "title" field is not viewable with Picassa, however, there is a free viewer called Irfanview that can view both fields as well as the GPS location data.

Irfanview shows the data in their "object name" and "caption" field in the Image Information. Irfanview's "object name" contains the iPhoto "title" data.

Wireless with CentOS on Sony Vaio AR250G laptop

Download Intel 3945ABG firmware from Intel's Micro Code page. As of July 23, 2010 with CentOS Linux version 2.6.18-194.8.1.el5, use micro code version 15.32.2.9. Copy to /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode. Be sure the file name has the -2, the file name is important. Refer to the Intel installation instructions.

Configure WPA per this page.